1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an optical waveguide, and more particularly, to a method of manufacturing an optical waveguide using an optical soliton generated in an optical waveguide material.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical waveguide or optical fiber is an optical member transmitting a beam in one direction without being diffracted when the beam propagates through a material. The most common example for the optical waveguide is an optical fiber used in optical communication. This optical waveguide is one of essential parts in the modern information society. Particularly, in the optical telecommunication area, the optical waveguide technology is considered to determine capability of an overall system, thereby gaining increasing importance.
The optical waveguide utilizes total reflection characteristics in which a beam, when propagating from a high-refractivity material to a low-refractivity material, is not transmitted but totally reflected at a critical angle or more. In a conventional method of manufacturing the optical waveguide, ions such as Ge and Ti are diffracted in a waveguide material such as glass and LiNbO3 to locally increase refractivity and guide the beam.
However, in this method, the Ge or Ti ions added are not diffracted deeply, thereby forming an optical waveguide only on a surface of the optical waveguide material and complicating a manufacturing process.